Yearly Archives: 2012

Throughout history, the world has been constructed, and more than once nearly destroyed, as a result of alliances both sacrosanct and sacrilegious.Alliances and coalitions are the essence of power. The ancient monarchies procured political marriages that expanded or consolidated empires, while modern parliaments construct coalitions in order to function. Independently of the objective that it […]

The paralysis of which we complain so much reminds me of the “laboratories of democracy” described by Louis Brandeis, a U.S. Supreme Court judge. His argument was that it is impossible to set rules for everything so you have to let things flow and find their place, so that experimentation leads to finding the best […]

A Persian proverb says that “when it’s dark enough you can see the stars”. The national panorama does not seem sufficiently black to be capable of seeing everything that occurs, but it appears evident that, as the recently deceased scholar Guillermo O’Donnell noted, the main reason for disenchantment resides in having believed that “the brickwork […]

Reflecting on his efforts as prime minister and reformer during Russia’s post-Soviet stage, Viktor Chermomyrdinmade an axiomatic affirmation that is as applicable to Mexico as it was to his own country: “We wanted the best but it turned out as always”. Many of the reforms that have been undertaken in Mexico over the past thirty […]

The Walmart case is an affront because it illustrates a facet of Mexican life that no one wants to face. We all know that in Mexico nothing can be resolved without the employment of an intermediary that, in good Spanish, implies give and take, licit or not. The impressive breast beating that the case has […]

As in the unhappy families of Tolstoy’s fame, each of the poor countries is unhappy in its own way. The mystery of prosperity is something that has intrigued innumerable scholars and philosophers. What is it that makes some countries prosper while others remain poor? The discussion with respect to prosperity is vast and interminable and […]

In the seventies, when the Anglo-Saxon countries were besieged with Japanese products, Charles Tilly published an article on the paradoxical effect of WW II on industrialized countries. The heart of his argument was that countries that had been devastated at the end of the war had hadno alternative other than constructing a new industrial plant. […]

The Library of Babel, one of Jorge Luis Borges’ most provocative works, is not a rational tale. The universe that he constructs, the library itself, is not something logical: saturated with contradictions and inconsistencies, in which there is life without food and children who are born without there being women.  However, there is a certain […]

In “The Blues Brothers”, after Jake (John Belushi) left her standing at the altar and with a dinner for 300 guests, his former fiancée shrieks at him, “You betrayed me!” “No, I didn’t”, he says, now cornered next to Elwood (Dan Akroyd). “Honest. I can explain. I ran out of gas. I had a flat […]

From Plato on, the idea of an open society has entailed transparency, a capacity to respond, and a government that is tolerant of and respectful toward the citizenry. Karl Popper enlarged, developed, and annotated the concept with his observations throughout the XX Century. For him, what was crucial was not the quality of the government […]